Dearest
by heartachequisition
Summary: He hasn't a clue what a 'fujoshi' is and why she's so worried about him hating her for it, but it's just a word anyway, and they'll be sweethearts for as long as they want to be. SetoMary, implied KanoKido. High School AU.


**A/N: **For people who weren't aware, a fujoshi is a 'female' that loves BL/Yaoi. A fudanshi is a 'male' that loves BL/Yaoi. Furthermore, BL stands for Boys' Love and can be phrased as 'shounen-ai'. Yaoi is more "hardcore" BL, including smut and the like. GL(shoujo-ai)/Yuri is the same, except it is between "girls", instead of "boys".

Terms are used loosely, I hope you understand. Also this is heavily based off the light novel/manga/movie 'Fujoshi Kanojo'. I haven't started work on it, but I might also write Kano/Kido/Ayano's view throughout this story as a separate fic, since they're not really the main focus here.

* * *

Seto doesn't know what to do, really. He supposes he's never been good at making decisions, but then again his siblings were always keen to make his decisions for him. His sister Kido's commanding presence often demanded a specific course of action, and his brother Kano would provide lazy advice from the sidelines (though Kano was never quite as trustworthy as Kido, and Seto learned this the hard way).

Their eldest sister, Ayano, was the most enthusiastic in solving problems but unfortunately she often did more harm than good. They loved her dearly though, and even at 17, the trio bawled when she had to leave to study overseas. He doesn't want to admit it, but Seto knows he cried the most. But he had always been a bit of a crybaby, in that respect, and past troubles were past troubles alone.

However, back to his current troubles, Seto finds his eyes wandering; he should be looking at the board and the structural diagrams of chemical compounds, but he isn't, because something is far more interesting and had been for the past few weeks or so. Cliché as it is to say: it's a girl.

Watching her from afar – long, cascading, creamy white hair with round eyes and soft, pale features – Mary Kozakura seems like the kind of girl people admired, but were too afraid to approach.

He thinks it silly, once he talks to her for the first time: Mary is actually the kind of girl who admires others from afar, but is too afraid to approach them herself. He was one of those people, she admits to him once they are friends, and her opinion hadn't changed for a moment even after they had met. He didn't realise it at the time, but he was doomed from that moment on, he supposes, to fall in love with the mass of adorable that is Mary Kozakura.

She is known to be sweet and clumsy, and an avid reader. She's a popular student in the art department too, for her fairy tale paintings (though it's rumoured that they are of questionable quality, but Seto thinks that's a story for another day). She also enjoys wearing puffy skirts and ribbons, and is more intelligent than she usually lets on – he realises this when on more than one occasion she frowns at peoples' jokes and looks as if she wants to hit them but doesn't.

Kano, his lovely brother, is a prime example of such people.

A wad of paper hits the side of his head before he notices he's been staring, and Kano again, who sits beside him at the desk by the window, is smirking.

Unfolding the paper suspiciously, Seto gawks.

_When are you gonna ask the pretty lady out?_

The message, in his brother's messy scrawl, is accompanied by a winking face and an odd blob drawing that somewhat resembled Mary surrounded by hearts.

_When did I say I was going to?_

He replies, throwing the paper back with a little more force than he intended. Kano winces but snickers.

_You know you want to. _The blond writes, _Come on, man. You like her, and she likes you. (Don't deny it, you're so obvious it hurts.)_

Against his will, Seto reddens and he scribbles quickly, sending the note back once more.

_She doesn't like me that way, we're just friends._

Kano's reply is almost instant. _You think she's cute._

_That doesn't mean anything!_

He hears Kano chortle loudly, and his brother sends him a suggestive look. Seto sends him a tight-lipped smile in return, but Kano only laughs harder and falls off his chair. Seto is instantly down to help him up, and all eyes turn towards them. Moments later, the teacher approaches them and sends them both outside for interrupting the class.

"Totally worth it." Kano says, patting Seto on the shoulder – or at least as high as he could reach.

Seto doesn't quite agree. He taps his shoe against the laminate flooring. "Why couldn't you wait until lunch to talk about this?"

"Because you'd run off somewhere again!" Kano lets out a dramatic sigh, brushing his blond hair from his face. "And then I'd have to be left alone with Kido, and man, she is scary…"

"I would not have run off." Seto insists, though he knows that's not true. A bead of sweat rolls down his face. "Why is this so important to you, anyway?"

"I just want to see you happy!" Kano states innocently, waving his arms around. "And I know you like the fluff-ball, so what's the problem?"

"It's not that simple."

"It can be."

"I can't do it."

Kano pulls him down to eye level, and grins. "You can. Just go for it, and know if you get rejected, you'll always have my everlasting love."

"What? _Kano_!" Seto sputters, but he's not really surprised. He's long past taking Kano's spontaneous declarations of love seriously. The blond only laughs, punching Seto playfully in the shoulder then cringing from the impact.

"Seriously though, I've got your back." Seto smiles at his brother, knowing that despite all the teasing and unfair jokes Kano played, this much was always true. Kano lets him stand straight again, as he stretches and places his hands behind his head. "At least you didn't fall for a scary girl like Kido or Ayano, am I right?"

"_Kano_!"

* * *

This is how he finds himself days later, after school by the shoe lockers while Mary is struggling with her books. The girl puts her bag down and bends to put her shoes on – her hair constantly getting in her way. Kido, whose locker is closest (Seto has to remind himself briefly that the names Kido and Kozakura were close by, and it was not because his sister was spying), decides to stand by Seto as he watches Mary fumble with her things.

"Good luck." She whispers calmly, "When you get home, I don't want to hear you saying you chickened out, okay?"

"Why does everyone have so little faith in me?" Seto sighs, but it isn't bitter.

Kido only rolls her eyes. "I wonder why. Who was it that said he was never going to do it again?"

"Every day is a new day!"

"That's not an excuse, you dolt."

Mary finally gets up, having finally finished putting on her proper shoes and Kido pushes Seto towards her.

"Off you go." She all but orders him, pushing him again when he doesn't move.

He stumbles a bit, because Kido's pretty rough at times like these, and almost completely topples over when Mary holds out her hands to steady him. She blinks rapidly when she realises that she's not going to lose her balance for once, and a delighted smile plays across her lips.

"Ah! Seto…? You're still here? I thought Kido already left."

Glancing at the spot Kido was only moments before, he's surprised to see that she's vanished. He nods uncertainly, "Yes, she did. I er, I wanted to talk to you."

"To me?" Mary asks, gaze flickering up to meet his. "What is it…?"

"Could we, uh…" Seto gestured down the hallway, awkwardly fiddling with the strap of his bag. "Move somewhere else to talk?"

"O-okay?"

At her consent, he takes long strides down into an empty classroom, and stops at the doorway, waiting for her to catch up. She does eventually get there, and stops right behind him.

"What do you want to talk about…?"

His courage dissipates almost instantly. Seto fumbles with his hands for a moment. Then he simply blurts loudly in panic, "I like you!"

Mary tilts her head curiously, though her face steadily turns red. "O-oh… I like you too? What brings this up all of a sudden? Did I do something…?"

Seto rocks on the balls of his feet. It looks like he needs to do some more clarification, and he does so the best way he can; charging straight forward. "Would uh, would you like to go out with me? On a date?"

Mary blinks. "A date."

"A date."

There is a few moments of tense silence and he feels the dread building. Mary looks contemplative, but her face seems it would be hot to touch. He doesn't try. She is the one who breaks the silence first, "Before… um… before I say anything, can I tell you something?"

He nods uncertainly, because the longer she stalls, the more nervous he's becoming. Granted, Seto had never confessed before, and he doesn't know how this works. Were there terms and conditions? Some kind of manual for this kind of thing? "What is it?"

Her voice drops and she looks down at her hands, "Promise you won't hate me?"

"Of course I promise! I couldn't hate you for anything." Seto lets these words out easily – something like that was impossible. His expression eases, but she doesn't look up to notice.

"Um… well…" Mary tugs at a strand of her hair uncomfortably as she confesses, "I'm a fujoshi."

Seto blinks. A what?

He scrambles through his brain trying to locate this word – this term? – but fails to come up with any results. Mary glances up at him briefly before her gaze darts straight back to the floor. She looks ashamed, but he hadn't the foggiest why.

It's possibly just the light reflecting off her eyes, but she almost seems to tear up. Either way, Seto doesn't want to hurt her, and no matter what this 'fujoshi' thing was, it probably wasn't bad enough to make him hate her.

He doesn't think he could ever hate her for anything, anyway.

Seto tries to grin what should be a comforting grin as he answers, "No, no, it's fine! I won't take it back. I don't, I don't mind. You can be whatever you want to be!"

Then Mary looks at him, and back down, and back up and a delighted smile plays across her lips.

"I like you too," she says cheerfully, "I would love to go out with you, Seto."

He smiles, "Are you free this Sunday?"

* * *

When Sunday rolls around, Mary is at his house, and Kido immediately pulls her in before Seto can say they're going to go out.

"It's raining." His sister explains swiftly, shutting the door behind Mary, who squeaks in surprise. It is really so she can watch them and send pictures to Ayano without going to the trouble of stalking them, but Kido chooses to leave this information out. "You can stay for the day. I'll keep Kano out of trouble."

There is an indignant cry of 'hey!' from upstairs, followed by a playful 'I am the life of the party, thank you very much' before Kido dismisses herself and trudges towards the source.

Seto nods at her gratefully, and though he wouldn't have minded either of his siblings hanging out with them, he supposed it wouldn't be fair to Mary. Speaking of Mary, she had quickly recovered and began gazing at the family photos that were hanging from the walls.

"In this picture," Mary chirps through little giggles, "You and Kano are so close."

"Hm?" He stiffens the tiniest bit, but gives the photo a fond smile. "Yeah. We are, we're brothers after all."

"Are you twins?" She inquires lightly, shifting her gaze to another photo. "I mean, since you are the same age and all…"

"No, actually. We're not blood-related, we're both adopted." He waves excitedly at a kid photo of Kido, in a blouse and skirt much too sweet to look like the stern girl now. "Kido's adopted too. We all went to the same orphanage together."

"That's adorable." She comments, a shy smile blooming on her face. Though it was more to herself than anything, he hears her mumble excitedly, "A forbidden love …" and then something about "dramatic circumstances" and "comforting each other" before she concludes with a cryptic: "I ship it…"

"What?"

Mary only giggles again. "Oh, nothing. Tell me more about you and Kano."

Though confused, Seto moves over to the couch and fishes a photo album from under the coffee table. "Alright then! Well, there was this one time when we were kids, right?" He thumbs a page where a brunette – big sister Ayano – stood posing in front of the three of them and he starts to explain. "And Kano was drawing on my face, because he felt like being mean that day, I don't know.."

And he continues, with Mary hanging onto his every word. It definitely didn't look like a date, but they were both enjoying themselves so it was fine the way it was. Probably. Seto knows he's just embarrassing himself with kid stories but Mary seems to be enjoying herself.

Somewhere along the line, Mary asks, "Oh, why is he sitting on top of you?"

"We lost the wheelbarrow races in elementary school and he blamed me for it…" Seto laughs, and his girlfriend (oh my god, can he say that?) beams brightly, pointing to another image with a question on the tip of her tongue.

"You're such cute brothers…! I can see that you love each other very much."

"Aha, you think so?"

Kido, who was in actual fact eavesdropping from the staircase, brought a palm to her face.

* * *

"This is Momo," Mary gestures to a cheery girl with a bright smile, as they are out and about on another sunny day. It's their 5th date, not that he's counting, and he doesn't regret a single moment of it. Mary was a joy to be around, whether he understood her or not, and equally she seemed to think the same of him.

"Momo, meet Seto."

He gives Momo a friendly grin and waves, which she returns with an enthusiastic bounce in her step. This is the first time he's met one of Mary's friends outside school, and she isn't quite what he expected. Not in a bad way though, because while Mary is gone to the bathroom, he finds that he gets along stellar with Momo as if they had been good friends for ages.

"Mary is cute, isn't she?" The girl laughs, "Man, I'm surprised she got you to come with us though. I can't even bribe my brother to come anymore, he's so lazy."

"She is." He replies, scratching the back of his neck. "And it sounded kind of interesting, is all! I've never been to this kind of event, and Mary seems to like it so…"

"Oh, so you're not a fudanshi? Well, I guess you didn't really seem like it… you're awesome for accepting her passion though." Momo nods thoughtfully, shooting him a random thumbs-up.

He lets the term fly over his head as he's given up on trying to learn this secret language. "Hey, I'm happy as long as she's happy." Returning her thumbs-up, they bump their fists together, both with surprising force.

Momo laughs, jumping up to pat him on the head. "You're great, Seto! How did you guys meet, by the way? Just school?"

"Yeah," he nods, "She transferred in last year, though we didn't really know each other until just a few months ago. And you?"

"Ah, awesome! I'd love to see you guys in your school uniform one day, haha! And well, me? Actually I met her here, in that café," She points to a dainty shop across the road, decorated in cute stickers and posters. "Because I used to work as a maid there."

"Wow, that's great!" He peers over at the brightly decorated store Momo's finger leads to, where the maids are singing and dancing. There is a burst of lace and bonnets that he'd never seen a café have before. Unique. "What do you do now?"

Mary is back now, and answers before Momo can reply. "Momo is an idol!"

He's shocked for a moment, and Momo looks apologetic, before he glances around and realises he must've been blind all this time. Momo's face is everywhere, on the television, on the billboards, on the banners and advertisements – he bends down and whispers to Mary, "Is this okay?"

His girlfriend blinks, "Is what okay?"

"Isn't she a celebrity-" He's cut off by a group of excited teenagers screaming past them, zooming into the shop behind him. Mary frowns slightly, but doesn't ask him to repeat what he said, as she tugs on his sleeve.

"Let's go to a butler café." She suggests, and the face she makes is impossible to argue against. Then again, he couldn't argue with Mary at all – she was just too cute and too persuasive for her own good.

Seto is confused even more when Momo grins and says, "I'll get you guys in, but then I gotta go. Wouldn't want to stay third wheeling, if you know what I mean."

"You're just embarrassed because you're crushing on one of the butlers or the maids upstairs," Mary states teasingly, but slips her hand into Seto's as she nods. Clearly, all the decisions would be made by Mary around here.

"Am not." Momo strolls into a building confidently, and they immediately let her in. She winks at Mary and Seto in turn, before she moves to leave. Just as she goes, she whispers ever-so-subtly to Seto, "Remember to control your girlfriend. She might faint from blood loss in a place like this."

And he's left confused again, but nods as he follows Mary down the corridor. There are flower petals everywhere, and he feels like he needs to sneeze at least twenty times, but he can't. As much as Seto loves nature, there has to be a limit to the amount of flowers in a room, and this room had definitely long passed that limit.

The butler café, as it's called, is full of pretty boys.

It's strange to say that, Seto muses lightly, but it's the only way to describe them. He doesn't think he's ever seen boys so impeccably pretty before, and as he glances at Mary, he thinks he knows why. Moreover, she seems to be looking at two of them near-kissing, and he discreetly tugs a tissue from a random table to hold over her bleeding nose.

"Mary?" He asks hesitantly, and her eyes finally make their way back to him. "You okay?"

She nods, but her voice cracks. "Y-yeah, I'm fine."

His phone beeps once, and he checks it. It's Kano.

_Oh hey, Seto! Look to your right._

He does, and is surprised to see Kano there, dressed as a butler of some kind and waving at him. Mary immediately squeaks, and Kano waves at her, too.

"Hello muffin number one and muffin number two." He calls, gracefully leading them to a booth and sliding on top of the table. "I didn't know you were into this kind of thing."

"We're not muffins." Seto mumbles under his breath.

"I didn't know you worked here." Mary pipes up.

"Are you teaching my dearest brother about the BL agenda?" Kano asks, and Seto just sits there, completely in the dark.

"Is that okay?" She has the decency to ask permission, but Seto still has no idea what they're talking about.

"Of course, of course!" Kano slides easily off the table and flicks them menus like playing cards. "Enjoy your stay, by the way. Call on me if you need – I'm number three!"

"We should call him," Mary says decisively, sending Seto a look. He doesn't know what she's implying, but he knows by now that there is something between him and Kano that apparently Mary finds incredibly interesting.

In more important matters… "So that's where he's been getting all his money from!" Seto suddenly says aloud, the revelation dawning upon him.

Mary snorts, but covers her mouth instantly, trying to cover up such an unladylike gesture with a timid cough. "You mean Kano?"

"Yes!" Seto stares at the ceiling with wide eyes, "By god, I was worried he was going out and stealing it from people. That's a relief."

"He's so silly." She pouts a little, playing with her hair.

"So, were you really wanting to call him?"

"Ye-yes!" Mary places her delicate hands on the table, gazing up at him with starry eyes, "If you would please call him for me… t-tell him to call you 'mas'-"

At this moment, Seto guesses her imagination is running a little too wild, because she curls up against him and actually faints and he ends up having to call Kano over for reasons he had not anticipated earlier. 'Oh well,' he thinks, 'Such is the beauty of a creative mind.'

Though he's a little miffed that Kano seems to understand something that he doesn't about this whole situation.

* * *

He's lost track of how many dates they've gone on by now, but he's also been well-educated in the manners of the fujoshi world. Seto thinks it's a privilege more than anything – much to Mary's surprise and delight – because he always liked learning more about people, and if it made her happy, then it made him happy too.

It wasn't as if their relationship was that one-sided though.

It's a fond memory, but also an embarrassing one as Seto remembers the one date they went on to the zoo.

"Look, Mary, you see that spotted doe?" He had been practically bouncing in excitement, and Mary had looked over at the deer in puzzlement.

"Which one?"

"That one, near the back, by the pond. She's going to have a baby soon, so I'm going to come back and take a look when that happens." Before she could even get a word in, he continued, "Do you want to know something about deer? Deer used to be considered sacred and divine, so if you killed one of them and got caught, you could get killed yourself! Kinda scary, huh?"

Mary nodded, "Oh my…"

"Luckily, that's not true anymore. But it's still sad when someone kills them intentionally, because they have their own lives too, you know? It's great that the zoo takes such good care of them, but one day, I'll go on a trip to Nara with you and I'll tell you more about them. There's a long history over there with deer…"

Indeed, Seto regrets that he couldn't stop his mouth from running that day. There is just something he loved about animals and nature that he couldn't contain, and he'd go on those massive rants about them not unlike the ones Mary went on about BL. He feels that he is obliged to first inform her of the dangers of mentioning animals to him – and the magic words of 'pets' and 'wildlife' – but by that point he is so far into his rants that he completely forgets how bizarre they can truly be.

But again, he still doesn't know what SetoKano actually is and why Mary seems so invested in it.

So they're a fanatic duo, in certain aspects, and they get along perfectly well.

* * *

"It's concerning, if not a little scary." Kido comments eventually. It's after school, and the quartet now had weekly meetings to discuss anything and everything – mostly to keep Seto from wandering off and getting Kano to confess to doing miscellaneous things which he may or may not have actually done.

They're all sitting in a manga café at Mary's request, and Kido hides her sparkly little romance in a bigger, automobile magazine. Kano, the only one who notices it, sends her a knowing look which has her fist meeting his face before the conversation progresses any further.

"What is?" Seto and Mary ask in unison, and she cowers ever so slightly.

"Your relationship." She answers cautiously, and Kano, beside her, already has a grin creeping onto his face. "It's so… perfect."

"We argue sometimes." Surprisingly, Mary is the first to answer. She pouts a little, "Seto won't read me BL novels unless I'm sick."

"It's because they have some magical healing power!" Seto exclaims, waving a hand around in wonder. "If I read them to you while you're not sick, I don't know what would happen to you!"

Mary blushes, and snuggles into his arm, and the subject is already dropped.

Kido sends them a disbelieving look. "My point exactly."

"I think the problem here is us, you see." Kano speaks up with alarming cheer, and Kido doesn't hesitate to ready her foot above his, as a warning. "We're so judgemental of pure love nowadays that we don't think such a fairy tale thing exists."

"That's way too deep for Kano," Kido mutters, "What's up with this random statement?"

Kano ignores her musing, in favour of looking Seto directly in the eye. "So, how far have you guys gone?"

Seto's face goes red, and he jumps out ready to bolt, but Mary immediately clutches onto his shirt and pulls him back into his seat. "Far enough." She states decisively, before hiding behind her wavy curtain of hair and whispering, "… f-for now."

A wrong move on Mary's part, as Kano's grin turns sly. "So you'd like to go farther?"

"Kano…" Kido warns, but he reaches for her flowery novel and she backs off, clutching the magazine to her chest. "Kano, I will hit you."

"Oh? Is that your way of flirting-" She starts whacking him in the arm as he speaks, dramatically clutching his 'wounded' arm, "Ow, Kido, really? I was just kidding!"

"Don't make them feel uncomfortable with such invasive questions."

"Who made you their mother?" Again the blond laughs and Kido's fist meets his stomach.

Seto, whose blush fades as he watches the two fight, stands again. "Kido, Kano, calm down!"

Kano reaches out to him, with a shooing gesture. "Seto, take Mary and go on without me! I'll take care of Kido, don't worry!"

"A-alright? What are you going to do-" He cuts himself off once his gaze meets Mary, the sweet albino girl standing stock still chewing on her hair. "Mary?" He asks. "You okay there?"

"C-continue," she replies. The hair is pulled out of her mouth and she pulls her at her uniform sleeves. "Just pretend I'm not here."

"Oho!" Kano exclaims, suddenly darting under the table, "Kido, take off your skirt!"

Kido flusters, "What the hell? No, you come back here!"

"I know you're wearing pants under that any way, so it's no big deal, right?"

"Kano!" Seto butts in, eyebrows knitting in concern. "Even if it's Kido, you can't just tell her to do that…"

"That's bad," Mary agrees, pressing her hands to her face. "Even if she wears a skirt…"

"'Even if she wears a skirt, she still looks like a guy', was that what you were going to say?"

A loud slam brings them all to attention, and Kido, with her fists clenched, storms out of the café. Seto and Mary glance at each other and then at Kano, who is sporting a red mark across his face.

Seto sighs, kneeling down to face his brother. "You should be more honest with yourself sometimes, you know? Even if it seems like a joke to you, sometimes people get hurt by it. And then it's not a joke anymore."

"I know," Kano mumbles. "I just want her to stop liking me. Maybe if she stops liking me, then I'll…"

Mary kicks him. "I would like to make a formal request."

Before the blond can protest, Seto speaks for him. "I, Shuuya Kano, will hear out Mary Kozakura's request."

"Mm… okay. Come to my house."

Kano looks bewildered, before the smile cracks across his face once more. "Whoa, what the heck? What's going to happen there? Are you going to make me watch you two make out or something – I'm going to pass, thank you very much-"

Assuming that Mary knows exactly what she's doing, Seto carefully returns all their books to their tabletop and hoists Kano over his shoulder. He ignores Kano's very vocal complaints about being 'man-handled' and turns to Mary with a wide grin saying, "To Mary's house we go!"

And Mary giggles sweetly.

* * *

Mary's house is nothing short of cute. Like Mary herself, the house is small but decorated with ribbons and lace and lined with bookshelves upon bookshelves upon bookshelves. There is a traditional tea set in the dining room, where a beautiful woman – introduced to them as Shion Kozakura, Mary's mother – sits mixing tea leaves.

Kano is only put down when they reach Mary's room, where the young girl ever so gracefully trips into her own door and Seto scrambles to help her up again. She's occupied for mere seconds staring into Seto's eyes when Kano attempts an escape, and the two of them pounce on the boy and hold him down (as gently as possible of course).

"What will happen if I tell Ayano you're dating a kidnapper? What will you do then?" The cat-eyed boy speaks in a joking sort of tone, but Seto frowns nonetheless.

"You know that's not true." He takes a glance at Mary before his attention returns to his brother. His stupid mouth runs on before he can stop it. "That would be like telling her about how much … well, you know."

"How much I love her?" The blond asks, his expression suddenly hardening. "Like telling Ayano how hard I fell for her only for her to trample on me?"

"Hey," Seto bites his lip. He doesn't want to argue with Kano, especially not here. Especially not about this. "Don't say that. She loves you. She loves all of us."

"So in the end, none of us are special, are we?"

"No, we're – "

" – all special, silly." Mary ventures closer to Kano. "I, um, I really have no idea what's going on but… I'm sure… Ayano would never want you to say that you're not special. See, you… sometimes you're really mean, but…"

"… you're doing it so everyone else forgets about their worries, aren't you?"

After a moment of silent pondering, Kano lets his lips curl into a grin. "Aww, look at you two. Finishing each other's sentences and everything. It's too much for my heart."

Seto and Mary exchange a glance. Then Mary coughs into her hand, trying to look menacing. "I want you to know that you can't think for other people. They have to think for themselves."

"That's right," Seto agreed. "You should know more than anyone that no matter what happens, we will always be here for you. I will always be here for you."

Kano gives them a tight-lipped smile. "You're kinda creeping me out."

Mary giggles, "You've been creeping me out since the start, but I haven't said anything… I think we're all used to it now…"

"That's right," Seto grinned sweetly, "Now come here, we're going to do this group hug thing properly for once. Then we go do it with Kido so you guys can say sorry and make up."

"You are _such _parents…" Kano groans, but submits to the two of them bouncing onto him anyway.

* * *

The first time Mary officially meets Ayano is when she accompanies Seto to her wedding. Ayano is possible more overjoyed to meet her - "Hello, Mary! It's so lovely to meet you! I've heard so much about you, and I have to catch up on so much with the trio, gosh, what do I do, I don't have time for this wedding... can we postpone it? Eh, no? Why not?" - than she is about the actual event, and it takes Ayano's fiancée on top of all the bridesmaids to drag her away from the bewildered Kozakura before she too is whisked away by the sheer grandeur of the wedding.

"Ayano knows way too many people." Kano grumbles from behind them, his eyes darting anxiously around the room. Kido is quick to stride over and adjust his tie, while he stares at her in a dress for the first time in what is nearing ten years. Kido shifts uncomfortably, noting his gaze, and when Ayano isn't looking, she socks him in the face.

"He's right though." Mary pipes up timidly. She clings to Seto's shirt as a crowd of screaming teenagers bump past her. "The-there's a lot of people, isn't there?"

"That's true. But the more the merrier, you know?" At her tensing, Seto shot her a reassuring smile. "It's okay. I'll be together with you this whole time. Nothing will happen to you."

She flushes, but a happy look overtakes her face. Then a frown. "What if I need to go to the bathroom?"

Then it is Seto who fidgets, wondering how he should reply to that when a familiar presence sweeps past them. It's unmistakable, because she has the kind of bright, super aura that captivates a person. "If you need to go, you'll go with Momo, okay?" As he points to the idol, Mary positively brightens and nods.

"I will!" Her grip on his shirt tightens. "But I'll… I'll stay with you for now."

"Yeah," he replies, pressing his lips gently to the crown of her head. "I'll be here."

* * *

The same words leave his mouth when they're standing side-by-side, and he's just proposed to her, and her teary eyes are glinting in the summer moonlight. Mary can't even talk, she's crying so hard and Seto holds her close, telling her, "There's no-one else I'd rather spend the rest of my life with than you."

When she is coherent, she murmurs, "E-even though I'm a fujoshi? And I'm clumsy, and clingy and, and you have to carry me so many places? And I spend so much money on doujins and I will never stop shipping SetoKano and – "

He nuzzles her, placing a soft kiss on her nose. "That's what makes you who you are. And I love you for every bit of it."

"Seto," she whines, hiding her face in his shirt. "You're saying embarrassing things again…"

"I know," he confesses, pressing his overheating face into her hair. "I just wanted you to think I was cool."

"You're always cool!" Mary protests, wrapping her arms around his neck. "A-and of course I um..! I will… ah… I will…!" Feeling her face burn along with his, she burrowed deeper into his clothes, unable to give a direct reply.

"So um," Seto's voice is muffled in her hair, and for good reason because he's nervous just saying the words, "Are we… engaged now?"

Mary nods, smiling shyly, "Yes…"

"Ah… and do.. do you want to wear the ring now? I mean, you don't have to, I'm just asking since I'm still holding it here and uh…"

A gentle hand lands on his, and her earnest eyes gaze up to look at him. "Yes, yes, yes."

In his flustered struggle to put the ring on her, he drops it. "Ah, um, sorry, I'll just - I'll get it, hold on!"

Then she giggles, soft and tender like a tinkling music box, and he joins her – their laughter mingling in with the euphoria of the night.


End file.
